This Week I…. – Lipstick, Lettuce & Lycra

Good Morning!

Blimey am I tired this morning. It’s been a long weekend already, and it’s not even over yet. I started writing this post at high-speed as I thought I had time to finish it before I went to the gym. As it turns out, my laptop disagreed and decided to hit go slow and not show me any of the words I was typing until about 30 seconds after I stopped typing. So since then I’ve been to the gym, been out for lunch, and am now finishing typing this after 2 pints in the pub, so it’s probably best if we crack on with it?

This week I…..

Ran the Trowse 10k

This feels like it was forever ago, but this time last week I had just run my first 10k race of the year. It was a beautiful sunny Easter Sunday morning, and I finished in a final chip time of 1 hour and 49 seconds, which is a really good time for me. The time on my picture was what my watch told me, and it took me a few seconds to stop it when I crossed the line! If you want to know more about the race went then I wrote more about that over on Lipstick, Lettuce & Lycra.

Since then I have discovered that Norwich Athletics Club have ruined my whole race running year by moving the Trowse 10k to October and the Half Marathon to April. I don’t really want to train for a Half Marathon in all the cold dark miserable months of the year, so I’m tempted to just not bother any more. Humph.

Got a hair cut

Hurrah! It’s hair cut time again! I like hair cut time because I love my bob when it’s super sharp and white blonde and I look less like a shaggy dog for a bit. Though I do need to do my roots again very soon. If you’ve ever considered white blonde, I am warning you, it takes a lot of upkeep!

Dealt with a chatty gas man

So, fingers crossed that the boiler saga I talked about last week is finally resolved. We had an appointment with our fourth different engineer who we finally persuaded to actually install the part the first engineer said it needed several weeks ago.

But goodness me, did this one like to chat! I am fairly confident that he will never read this as we established that he did not use the internet apart from the occasional email.

I’m not unknown for my ability to talk constantly about nonsense, especially after a drink, but I’m not a great one for telling strangers about my whole life when I’m sober, especially when I’m trying to work. In the course of an hour and a half visit he asked about what I did for a living, complete with every cliché question a blogger has ever been asked. There was the inevitable “How much money do you make?”, he’s lucky I didn’t ask him that right back. Then we covered Roller Derby and all the cliché questions about that. “Is it violent?”, “Do you get hurt?”. Then how much time I spent at the gym and what weights I lift. Anyway, you get the idea. He was very friendly and super helpful, and not only is my boiler fixed but also the gas meter earthed which a significantly more grumpy gas man *didn’t* do 3 years ago, so I am very grateful. Honestly.

Had a Nosebleed

Actually I had 2 nosebleeds, and not a delicate trickle of blood either. They were horrible “Oh my god has someone been murdered” style nosebleeds.

I went through a little phase of getting them about 5 years ago and had my nose cauterised at the hospital, and I hadn’t had another one till Friday afternoon when I was stood in Toys R Us bathroom and suddenly there was blood everywhere. I dealt with it, and all was fine. Until half way through a Roller Derby game on Saturday when I suddenly had another one. Only this time there was a paramedic, who was very nice and provided me with gauze and put a blood oxygen meter on me and all sorts, which was a bit dramatic.

I was utterly heart-broken to have to sit out for 15 minutes of the game. I’m hoping the nose spray I’m using for my allergies is the culprit, so I’ve stopped using it, and hopefully I can refrain from spraying blood all over the place again any time soon.

Spent 14 hours on a Bus

This is the reason I was in Toys R Us on Friday afternoon. I wasn’t shopping for Pie Face or Pokémon or whatever they sell in Toys R Us, I was using their bathroom before getting on a Mini Bus with 16 other people to travel to Newcastle.

The Norfolk Brawds were playing the Whippin’ Hinnies on Saturday which required an overnight stay as Newcastle is really quite a long way from Norwich. Like a really long way.

The game was a friendly for training purposes for us. We didn’t win, but it was a great game to play, making it even more gutting that I missed out on 10 minutes of it with a nosebleed. Afterwards we also got to watch a Tier 1 British Champs game between the Canny Belters and Brawl Saints from London which was amazing. I can only hope to be that good EVER.

Turns out there’s a lot you can learn about your teammates in 14 hours on a bus. We also got to drive past the Angel of the North, so totally worth the trip.